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Magnetometer Testing: Geomagnetic Storm Detected

The magnetometer is on a lab bench at this time and running continuously. Typical plots look like the one below from 10-October-2016. Deviations from the 00hour UT moment at the start of the plot are in nT. Time is in UT. Short vertical changes are typically automobiles moving in the area. 10-October was a geomagnetically calm day.

A small CME struck the Earth on 13 October resulting in a G1 level storm and some fabulous aurora for northern latitudes. The Kp index hit 6. The magnetometer detected this storm as can be seen by the plot below.

Getting the plots into Excel: Import the files using space and comma as the delimiters. Create three columns for delta x, y and z. Input an equation that calculates the difference between the current cell and the initial entry (format: =c1-$c$1 which creates an Excel absolute cell reference to c1). Check the data all the way down! There are corruptions in the readout that might be from the serial to USB converter. Graphs will not plot properly unless those errors are removed. Below is what the sheet will look like when you’re ready to plot. Columns D, F, and H are the calculations of “=c2-$c$2”, “=e2-$e$2”, and “=g2-$g$2” respectively.